NYC-based power collaborator Stephen Becker is gearing up to release his second proper album at the end of the month, with the shapeshifting and guest-filled Middle Child Syndrome marking a new watermark of experimentalism for the songwriter. With the help of a road-tested backing band and production staff and vocal contributions from Katie Von Schleicher, Boy Scouts’ Taylor Vick, and Kidi Band’s Linnea Sablosky, Becker repurposes sounds familiar to the late-aughts Brooklyn indie scene and warps them to meet the more fractured nature of our post-genre musical landscape. Before the record drops next Friday, Becker is sharing another new single which features vocal harmonies from former Tiny Hazard songwriter Alena Spanger.
“Range” is a subdued indie-pop track that takes cues from various eras of Sufjan’s discography between its orchestral frills and Age of Adz–esque glitches near the recording’s end. Meanwhile, Becker and Spanger’s soft vocals reflect on the difference between physical comfort and something much deeper. “‘Range’ is a meditation on the difference between being lost and being outside your comfort zone,” Becker shares. “I wrote it during a period of feeling untethered—fantasizing about quitting my job and starting over, obsessively cleaning my apartment, anxiously binging ’80s science fiction films, and going on too many awkward dates with strangers. After some reflection and journaling, I realized that the kind of lostness I was experiencing was more of a state of mind than a physical reality. By reframing my perspective, I started to find a sense of belonging, all while staying perfectly still.”
Check out the track below, and pre-order Middle Child Syndrome ahead of its October 25 release via Record Euphoria here.
